Live from DMA08: Separate What You Can and Cannot Control, Says Greco

In the face of an uncertain economy, direct marketers must separate what they can control from what they can’t, said Direct Marketing Association John Greco in his opening keynote remarks yesterday at the DMA08 conference in Las Vegas.

“With the things I can control, I want to be sure I’m using every resource available in the most efficient and effective way,” he said. “With the factors that are beyond our control, I want to minimize risk.”

In his wide-ranging speech themed “r u connected?” Greco urged marketers to make connections with people and organizations, connect with each other, and connect the various marketing channels.

“Connecting the channels will allow marketers to continue to connect with customers,” he said.

Greco estimated that direct marketing this year will drive well over $2 trillion in sales, more than $500 million of which will be Internet and e-mail marketing sales, $702 billion will be direct-mail sales, $364 billion will be telephone sales and $451 will be driven by newspapers, television and other media.

“Even in this difficult economic year, direct marketers can be more proud than ever that our sales growth continues at a pace that’s faster than overall sales. Overall U.S. gross domestic product continues to benefit from the growth we generate.” He said, adding that direct marketing accounts for 10% of U.S. GDP.

Greco said that every dollar spent on direct marketing advertising this year will return $11.63 in incremental sales.

Greco also spent a significant part of his speech making the argument that the DMA is not just a direct-mail trade association, an image the DMA has struggled to shed since the Internet became a viable marketing medium.

“I am often asked whether or not the DMA is really a multichannel association,” he said, conceding the group has “deep roots” in direct mail.

“But just like marketing has evolved, the DMA has also developed into something far different from our roots,” Greco said. “Today, we are truly a multichannel organization.”

For example, he said, the DMA this year instituted a search-marketing certification program. He also touched on some of the activities of the group’s email experience council.

And as no DMA president’s fall conference keynote would be complete without a discussion of the regulatory challenges facing direct marketers, Greco touched on them, as well.

“Did you know 12 states proposed 15 do-not-mail bills this year?” he said. “Thanks to the efforts of the direct marketing community—specifically the DMA and the coalition we established, Mail Moves America—none of these bills were passed.”

Greco also noted that Congress this year held hearings on behavioral-targeted advertising and that the Federal Trade Commission is considering imposing new regulations on it.

“We could easily face a slippery slope that would drive relevance completely out of marketing and direct marketing completely out of business,” he said.

And as reported would be the case in this newsletter recently, Greco also announced that the DMA has revamped its mail preference service and renamed it DMAchoice, a service that allows consumers to opt out of marketing from specific brands and from specific types of advertising.

“Instead of one single global opt out, we’ve made the level of choices more granular, offering separate categories for consumers to consider, such as catalogs, magazines, pre-approved credit offers and other types of advertising mail,” he said. “For the first time, we are including a direct conduit to individual brands and merchants selected by consumers for any change, opt-out or opt-down, as well as opt-in.”